國樂新視界
Points Of Intersection:
New Vision
American Composer Meets East-Asian Instruments 4/23/23 Text / Prof. Donald R. WOMACK, University of Hawaii Images / Prof. Donald R. WOMACK, Prof. FAN Wei-Tsu, Taipei Chinese Orchestra, Chinese Culture University Department of Chinese Music
Preface by the translator of the Chinese version
——FAN Wei-Tsu, Chinese Culture University
I first met Dr. WOMACK when performing in Seoul in October 2016. During a visit to the National Gugak Center, I was introduced to an austere looking, silver haired American composer. In the ensuing conversation, I was happy to learn we were alumni of the Northwestern University. Though our times there didn’t overlap mostly, we both have some fond memories of the Evanston campus. As our conversations became more and more engaged, Dr. WOMACK’s eyes turned piercingly bright, while sprinkled with radiant smiles. Later on I was able to know more of his compositions through our mutual friend YI Jiyoung, a renowned Gayageum performer and a Professor at the Seoul National University. I felt it quite fascinating that Dr. WOMACK’s works have an organic vibe between his music idiom and various Asian instruments, without the strenuousness found in certain contemporary music of the genre. Many TCO fans first heard Dr. WOMACK’s music, i.e. the second movement of the Gayageum concerto Scattered Rhythm, performed by YI Jiyoung in a gala concert last year. We are glad to have him in person this time as one of the keynote speakers for the 2023 TCO Academic Symposium for Chinese Orchestra, sharing his profound experience in writing new music for traditional Asian instruments from different countries.
Conducting 무노리 (Mu Nori) with the Gyeonggi Sinawi Orchestra November 2018
Text This article is adapted from a keynote speech I gave at the 2023 International Symposium on New Music for Chinese Instruments, hosted by the Taipei Chinese Orchestra. When I was first approached by Professor FAN Wei-Tsu of Chinese Culture University, one of the event’s organizers, my initial thought was “why on earth is he asking me to give a keynote speech at a conference on composing for Chinese instruments?” After all, when you think about someone to fill that role, a white American who has not composed much for Chinese instruments is not the first person who comes to mind!!
SILK R AD
But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Oftentimes, an outsider’s perspective helps us understand ourselves better. Speaking from my own experience, living in Japan and Korea and traveling throughout Europe has helped me better understand American culture. Learning to speak Japanese and Korean, at least to the limited extent that I’m able, has helped me better understand how the English language works and to recognize limitations of which I had previously been unaware. And composing for East Asian instruments has helped me better understand western instruments, prompting me to explore approaches I had not thought of. When we encounter new ways of thinking about things that we’re already familiar with, we’re encouraged to do a healthy self-analysis. So it was from that perspective that I addressed the symposium attendees, not just to introduce my music, but to do so in the hopes that it might somehow encourage others to examine their own paths and discover things that they otherwise might not.
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